The School Committee, on Wednesday, Oct. 8 accepted Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak’s goals in the district over the next two years. The change from a one-year plan of goals better fits the team approach the district’s administrative department follows, Szymaniak explained.
There are four standards for the goals – instructional leadership, management operations, community engagement and professional culture.
Under the curriculum objective of instructional leadership, promoting the learning and growth of all students and the success of all staffs by cultivating a shared vision that makes teaching and learning the central focus of schooling. Toward that goal, Szymaniak described the aim of a comprehensive, innovative and culturally responsive curriculum that fosters adaptable students who have the foundational skills they can universally apply in an ever-changing world, he said.
“In a nutshell, we’re going to be forming a rubric of how we do walk-throughs for our leadership team,” he said, which creates a standard that can be used to provide teacher coaching in the classrooms. “Right now, we don’t have that, so we’re going to work through that.”
Each principal, assistant principal and department chair informally goes through and does that now, but Szymaniak’s goal is to have a collaborative approach to do it.
The management and operations goal is to ensure the success of all students and staff by providing a safe, efficient and effective learning environment with resources devoted to appropriate curriculum, staffing and scheduling.
“Over the next couple of years overseeing the MSBA project for the new Whitman Middle School and working with members of the building committee about making thoughtful decisions about design, materials and construction, continue to evaluate human capital across the district to ensure fiscal responsibility and efficiency while maintaining appropriately tiered support for systems,” he said, boiling it down to: the building ground-breaking will be in March 2025 with the plan to open the doors to students in September 2026.
In the meantime, the district must analyze who’s going to be moving over to the new building, as far as fifth-grade is concerned, other staffing needs they might have, and examining the pre-school space crunch, while keeping an eye on the budget without losing progress in making instructional gains for W-H students, he said.
The third goal is to promoting the learning standards for students and the success of staff through partnerships with family and community organizations and other stakeholders to improve the school district, aiming to provide a welcoming and affirming school environment that removes barriers so students, staff and families feel valued and have a sense of belonging.
“It’s my job to make sure that I have a collaborative dialog with community members and sharing the good things we do in our district, to then educate the taxpayers who support our projects to support our budget and making sure I clarify questions they may have and dispel rumors that might come up through social media or other avenues,” Szymaniak said. “To make sure the taxpayers, and parents know what’s going on in our schools.”
The fourth goal is to ensure the success of all students by nurturing a school culture of reflective practice high expectations and continual learning for staff.
“This is getting challenging in 2024,” he said. “[But] staff recruitment and retention, creating an environment that is diverse and engaging to attract, develop and retain highly qualified staff” to increase diversity, equity and inclusion practices to achieve the goal.
Partnerships with colleges and universities to identify and develop potential teachers while they are still in high school.
“I think it’s out there that we’re only going to hire based on race and religion,” Szymaniak said. “I think I did see that on social media. That’s not really true. My goal in this is to try to bring the best candidate forward to W-H, but make us a diverse community where people who are of diverse backgrounds apply.”
He said there are not a lot of people with diverse backgrounds applying to W-H right now and he wants to stress the district is diverse, with students of all different backgrounds.
That welcoming school culture helps in retaining those teachers.
“It’s not always about the money,” he said.
The board approved the goals for the next two years.
Bilingual literacy
The Assistant Superintendent for Equity and Compliance Dr. Nicole Semas-Schneeweis and District Family Liaison for Multi-lingual Learners Felicia Barboza provided the Committee with an update on the inaugural year of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Seal of Biliteracy program and W-H’s participation in it.
Two letters have gone out from the district about the seal to families and students which describes the criteria for earning the seal, she said.
Barboza is a former W-H student, a current social work graduate student, and “my right hand in working with and for our multi-lingual learner families,” Semas-Schneeweis said.
“Felicia was pivotal in helping me get the seal for W-H, so I’ve asked her to share this information with you this evening,” she said.
Greeting the Committee in both English and Portugese, Barboza then explained that the Seal of Biliteracy is presented to high school graduates who obtain proficiency in both English and another world language by graduation.
“It’s a credential that’s recognized by colleges and employers and is a skill,” she said. “For our students, this means getting more opportunities, chances of getting higher-paid jobs, and also, credits for college.”
The program recognizes English language learners who master it as a second language as well as students for whom English is their first language and who become proficient in a second world language. Of 68 English-speaking students who study Spanish taking the assessment test for foreign language proficiency, Semas-Schneeweis said they were well pleased to have 12 students within one domain of proficiency. But there was one of those 12 who earned the Seal of Biliteracy.
“The hardest domain for world language proficiency is speaking and it’s where we’ve noticed that the greatest area of need is,” Semas-Schneeweis said.
Semas-Schneeweis and Barboza also co-manage the English Learner Parent Advisory Council (ELPAC) to work with families in the community – and they are seeking a parent or guardian to work with who will become the ELPAC’s president. They have also conducted a survey on what the families feel is most valuable to them on times and avenues for meeting with them.
Barboza said there are 245 families helped by the multi-lingual learners office.
Stafford also extended thanks from Whitman Food Bank’s Lauren Kelly for Barboza’s help in helping the food bank communicate with and aid the community’s families.
“She wants to work with you even more then you already are,” Stafford said.